Furthering public health outcomes through sport in Poland & learning from Healthy Stadia

Dr Robin Ireland, Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Health and Wellbeing at University of Glasgow, and Honorary Director of Research with Healthy Stadia, has just returned from a visit to the Tricity area (Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot) of Poland following an invitation from Tomasz Zdrojewski, Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of Gdańsk.

Robin gave three presentations and one podcast in a four-day visit which had been shortened due to the intervention of Storm Amy. Each presentation allowed a further examination of the impact of sport on public health, and the challenges that the commercialisation and commodification of sport present.

In talking to medical students, Robin described the commercial determinants of health. In a keynote presentation to over 300 school students (both present and online), Robin focused on how energy drinks used the passion and excitement of sport to promote their brand to young people.

His final presentation was to a mixed audience of football staff, health and wellbeing workers, and medical professionals working in the city of Gdynia, with many associated with Polish Ekstraklasa Football League team, Arka Gdynia. This provided an interesting discussion on how football could promote health. Robin was presented with Arka’s famous pink shirt which is being used to promote awareness of breast cancer. In return, Robin gave Arka’s owner a copy of his new book ‘Cutting the Mustard’.

You can read Arka’s report of the meeting here.

You can listen to the podcast by the Medical University of Gdańsk which describes Robin Ireland’s visit here.